Day Full of Doctors

For being a day off, today felt like a lot of work.

I took Helena to her doctor this morning to be checked out after the accident last Thursday.  Her back is stiff and sore.  He ordered back x-rays to make sure nothing is out of alignment.  So, we went straight over to the hospital to get that done.  By the time I got her to school, she had missed first through third periods.  All that was left was lunch and fourth.  Ah well.

After dropping her back at school, I went straight to the physical therapist.  His name is Russ.  We (meaning Bill) know Russ very well.  Bill and Russ have been mountain biking buddies for quite a while, now.  And Russ helped Bill regain the use of his right arm after the monster reconstruct of it this summer. In fact, Russ told me today that 1) he is very impressed with the surgeon's skill in rebuilding Bill's arm, and 2) Bill is an 'animal' when it comes to both mountain biking and physical therapy to regain total use of the arm.

Physical therapy was awesome!  I have never had it before, so I didn't know what to expect.  He asked questions about the accident and what my body did in the crash.  Then he poked and prodded, twisted and turned my neck and back asking what hurt and what my range of motion was.  Once he established that, he worked out a schedule of stretching exercises for me to do so that, as the muscles heal, they will remain long and stretchy instead of tight and constricted with scar tissue.  Then I had electrodes placed on my back and neck while heat was applied.  That felt tingly, but not bad.  After that, they used ultrasound waves to send heat into the deep muscle tissue.  That didn't feel like anything.

Then, I got a back massage!  Other than the sore parts, that felt great!  Finally, Russ pulled and pushed a bit and made sure I could explain to him all my homework stretches before sending me on my way with a schedule of return visits for the week.

After therapy, I just had enough time to get to the pharmacy to fill some prescriptions before picking the kids up from school.

Then it was off to do the groceries that had been neglected over the weekend (because I was too sore and tired to do it).

Finally, the kids and I went to our dentist appointments.  Those had been scheduled 6 months ago.  Once again, Will has no cavities.  I don't know how the kid does it, but I am not complaining!  I, too, passed with flying colors, but Helena wasn't so lucky.  She has a cavity that will have to be taken care of next week.  Boo.

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home.  That is a standing tradition.  Those with no cavities get to have a fast food meal of their choice.  Will wanted a Baconator (ugh).  By the time we got home for the day it was after 5 pm and I was beat!  It really was a day full of doctors.